By now, six years into her case, it should be clear that Abigail Fisher isn’t the symbol of reverse discrimination she and those who oppose the consideration of race or ethnicity in college applications claim she is. It should be equally clear, as the courts have affirmed, that there is value in universities seeking diversity in their student bodies. A properly rounded college education depends on it.

A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday, 2-1, that the University of Texas could continue to consider race and ethnicity in deciding admissions, that the two factors can join grades, test scores, extracurricular activities, community involvement, examples of leadership and family circumstances as part of a “holistic review” of a prospective student’s application.

The 5th Circuit had ruled against Fisher in 2011 but last year was ordered by the Supreme Court to revisit her case and apply “strict scrutiny” to whether UT needs to consider race and ethnicity in admissions to achieve diversity. Tuesday the 5th Circuit found that UT’s admission policy was properly narrow and essential to promoting diversity.

In its Fisher ruling in June 2013, the Supreme Court not only passed on the opportunity to issue a landmark decision striking down affirmative action, but it also largely reaffirmed the support for diversity it expressed in Grutter vs. Bollinger, a 2003 case involving admissions to the University of Michigan Law School. In Grutter, the court ruled that universities benefit from putting together a diverse student body. To achieve diversity, universities could create admission policies that use race as one factor among several in assessing student applications.

Diversity benefits students, universities and society. It’s essential to a college education, a point Judge Patrick Higginbotham, appointed to the 5th Circuit in 1982 by President Ronald Reagan, emphasized in the court’s majority opinion on Tuesday.

Diversity enhances “the richness of the educational experience,” which is about “the shaping of lives” as much as it is “the filling of heads with facts,” Higginbotham wrote.

The need to achieve and maintain diversity on campus has shaped UT’s argument in Fisher’s case.

When Fisher applied to UT in 2008, Texas students who finished in the top 10 percent of their high school classes were guaranteed admission. Because Fisher did not graduate in the top 10 percent, she was not automatically admitted to UT. Instead she became one of an estimated 16,000 applicants competing for about 1,275 slots available to students who graduated outside the top 10 percent.

Fisher’s combined math and verbal SAT scores were 1180 out of a possible 1600. Her case presumes that UT made way for a minority student who did not deserve to be admitted more than she deserved to be admitted. Court documents show that one black and four Hispanic applicants with scores lower than Fisher’s were allowed into a provisional admission program, but so, too, were 42 white students with scores equal to or lower than Fisher’s. Meanwhile, 168 black and Hispanic applicants who had scores equal to or higher than Fisher’s were denied admission.

The university offered Fisher the chance to attend another UT System school her freshman year and transfer to Austin her sophomore year if she earned 30 credits and maintained a 3.2 GPA. Fisher rejected this fair offer, choosing instead to enroll at Louisiana State University, from which she graduated in May 2012.

Each year, countless students find themselves rejected by their first-choice universities. Rejection is disappointing and painful, but it’s no barrier to a student finding success elsewhere.

UT didn’t reject Fisher maliciously or discriminately. She just failed to make the university’s cut. It’s time she finally let her lawsuit go.

This editorial was published Thursday in the Austin American-Statesman.